Incumbents Lead Pack In County Board Races

March 18, 1992|By Christi Parsons and William Presecky. Tribune reporters Joseph Sjostrom and P. Davis Szymczak contributed to this article.

The election winds appeared to be blowing favorably for Du Page County Board incumbents Tuesday.

Early unofficial results in primary races in the newly drawn six County Board districts showed most of the 17 incumbents leading or among the top four vote-getters in each.

Seats for all six of the districts, which will each have four members instead of the old system of five districts with five members each, were up for simultaneous election for the first time in a decade.

Democrats had no contests in any primary race for local public office in Du Page County.

County Board Chairman Aldo Botti had tried to make inroads in his personal political struggle with state Sen. James ``Pate`` Philip (R-Wood Dale) by not only floating his own candidates in County Board races, but in legislative and other party primary campaigns as well.

Those included a precinct committeeman`s race in Philip`s hometown where an opponent, Botti-backed retired electrician Ralph Hoeft, was challenging Philip and attempting to derail his 21-year reign as county party chairman.

Party bylaws require the powerful county post to be held by an elected precinct committeeman.

While early returns showed his County Board and Illinois General Assembly candidates jockeying back and forth, Botti was frantically trying to keep tabs on several races.

``I`d like to get all 13, but they`re up against incumbents,`` Botti said. ``It`s too close`` to determine whether he has won or lost voting strength on the board.

``There`s no magic number,`` he said. ``There are people who have opposed me. I have to get rid of them, too.``

Of the 13 County Board candidates whom Botti hoped would be nominated and elected and form a majority who would back his plans in the future, about half that number were leading with a quarter of the precincts reporting.

The strongest district showing for Botti early on was in the eastern part of the county, where incumbents Wally Brown of Downers Grove, Gertrude Coit of Darien and newcomer Patti Rigney Bellock of Hinsdale were running tightly with anti-Botti incumbent Ken Moy of Hinsdale. Incumbent Barbara Purcell of Downers Grove was ahead of them all in early returns.

By and large, incumbents running for re-election to countywide offices were headed to the Republican nomination, which has historically translated to election in the subsequent general election in Du Page.

But Circuit Court Clerk Joel Kagann was in a tough fight in his primary race against Charlotte Mushow.

The trace of change in the air in the biggest election year in a decade came through the nomination of eight newcomers by GOP voters to fill board seats left vacant by incumbents who retired, or attempted to win other offices.

Two new judges were already sure to take the bench in the Du Page County Circuit Court. Only two races for the Republican nomination to the court`s five vacant positions were contested.

The judges head toward the November general election with the Republican nomination, almost a sure bet for election.

The outcome of the County Board race will spell just how friendly the board will be to Botti in the rest of his tenure. Botti, whose first year was marked with strife and turmoil on the board, swore to unseat those who have rejected his ideas out-of-hand. Philip, Botti`s sworn foe, and County Board members of the regular Republican Party were the prime targets.

An equal number of people who ran in support of Botti also ran in protest of what is perceived as pro- and anti-Botti fighting on the board. The dynamic has stymied legislative action.

The Tuesday primary is the first since the board`s districts were redrawn.

Member Roger Kotecki of Glen Ellyn, who was drawn into an almost entirely new elective district with the remap, agreed with other independent incumbents that the situation on the board can only get better as a result of the election.

``I really am hopeful,`` Kotecki said. ``I think there`ll be enough new people on the board who are not carrying the scars of previous battles and don`t feel compelled to take it out on each other.``

Some of the County Board`s most senior members were already set to leave after the new board is sworn in at the end of the year.

Of the Republicans nominated and elected to the board in 1982, the first primary after the last reapportionment year, only Patricia Trowbridge and Barbara Purcell of Downers Grove, Raymond Soden of Wood Dale, Mary Price of Naperville and Lloyd Renfro of Wheaton remain.

Soden, Price and Constance Zimmermann of Wheaton have all stepped down from their seats to retire from politics.

Trowbridge, who has been on the board longer than any current member, stepped down to run for state Senate against Rep. Thomas McCracken (R-Downers Grove).

Four other board members also left vacancies with bids for seats in the Illinois General Assembly. Robert Schillerstrom of Naperville stepped aside to run for the state Senate, and Carole Ann Pankau of Roselle, Judith Crane Ross of Downers Grove and Carl Roth of Villa Park mounted campaigns for state House of Representatives.

Early returns showed Schillerstrom trailing three other candidates, led by Aurora accountant Chris Lauzen, in Kane County and Aurora precincts, but ahead two-to-one over Lauzen in Du Page reports.

In the last post-reapportionment primary, 21 incumbents sought re-election. Eighteen survived the primary and went on to re-election.

Since then, 39 men and 19 women, 57 Republicans and one Democrat, have held board seats either through election or appointment.

Moy said many incumbents had been expecting to do well.

``I got the impression they were not mad at us out there,`` said Moy, who was running a close fourth in early returns in his board district.